FMI President: Miss. Marites Aquino Castillo Received a check in the Amount of $700.00, From PTI for the FMI Basketball Team. Awarded by: Mr. Norman Del Rosario (Art director of PTI) .On behalf of Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI), We would like to thank PTI and Mr. Norman Del Rosario for their generous support to our Organization.

Repentance occurs when we come to the point where we become open to receiving the help that God longs to give us. To repent is to face up to our problem as well as the fact that we cannot do anything about solving it. One way the bible describes repentance is "coming to our senses", clearly showing the madness of our trying to solve things on our own. The first time we repent is often the worst and the best. It's the worst because the sin, pain and illusions are their strongest. It's also the best because there's no joy in the world like the joy of having been freshly forgiven. But repentance is not just a once-and-for-all experience of a moment. For those who come to know God, it's a way of life. It has to be because sin and self are not easily displaced at the center of our lives. And, more important, our deepening desire for intimacy with God makes us more sensitive to sin, not less. So whether it is the new believer or the old, the meaning is the same. Repentance brought us to Christ in the first place and repentance will keep on bringing us back. To know God is to know the light of his presence. It is to know that there is nowhere left to hide. But to those beyond running repentance means the promise of intimacy as well as the melting away of fear in the light of love.

REMEMBERJesus is ruler over all time and space, but he limited himself to enter human history at one moment of time and one certain place-both foretold by prophecy. The time God chose for my being on earth is significant. From him comes my awareness of the anguish caused in our century. From him comes my responsibility as a world citizen and prayer warrior.

REFLECTLord, i pray for this people, and it's problems can seem so overwhelming and complicated. Help us to know what and how to pray through your Spirit. Amen.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

We hope that some Filipino here in the CNMI will have the chance to see and read this blog. We have noticed that the situation in the CNMI is getting worse because of what other Filipino groups are doing. We don't support this Filipino group who's only interest is in getting US Citizenship or access to the US just because they worked here for years. We, as a Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI), are really concerned that those guest workers have lost sight of why they came to Saipan and now are looking only to leave Saipan, but not to go to their homes. We too have worked on Saipan for years and recognize that there are problems and almost certainly abuse, but the answer to those individual situations is individual actions as we already all have the same rights (but not privilege) as US Citizens. We believe the proper action is to fix the problems locally through legal processes available to us here rather than praying that the US will take action. What if the CNMI passed a local law sending all of us home who had been here for year or more, they could do that before the US pass any law! Indeed we still can't be sure any US law will be passed, or any law granting us access to the US will be passed. Some groups have made the problems into all of us vs. all of them. We will never have the respect of all the local people but the way demonstrations and counter demonstration are happening we risk most of us ending up with no respect for us and perhaps even hate developing between most people on both sides. Imagine then how life would be if the US does not allow us to move to the US, we would be trapped in an Island of hate. Even if we are allowed to leave for the US we might find these last months or years here on saipan to have exposed our children to a hateful environment where they even learn that their parents hate and are hated by other people. I wish I know the solution to the problem here but I don't. I do know that we and our children may suffer emotionally if the problems here are resolved in hate, fear and a lack of respect of groups of people (and not just of individuals who deserve to lost respect because of their treatment or abuse of other individuals).

AS YOU EXAMINE THIS BLOG, YOU SHOULD FIND THAT THE FRIENDS OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS (FMI) IS A GROUP MADE UP OF SEVERAL NATIONAL AND ETHIC GROUP. THOUGH OUR MEMBERS ARE PREDOMINANTLY FILIPINO ALL OF US ARE CONCERN THAT WE ARE BEING CONFUSE WITH THOSE GROUPS THAT HAVE A POLITICAL AGENDA. ARE GROUP FRIENDS OF THE MARINA ISLANDS (FMI) IS INTERESTED ONLY IN BEAUTIFYING THE CNMI. WE ASK THAT ALL PEOPLE OF THE CNMI BE AWARE THAT FRIENDS OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS (FMI) ONLY HAS THE GOAL OF HELPING CLEANUP THE ISLAND AND WE UNDERSTAND THAT MANY OF OUR MEMBER IS A GUEST WORKER IN THE CNMI. WHILE WE ARE CLEANING THE ISLAND IF WOULD BE NICE TO HEAR SUPPORTIVE COMMENTS FROM THOSE PASSING BYE RATHER THAN BEING TOLD TO "GO HOME IN YOUR OWN LAND"!!! AGAIN, FRIENDS OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS (FMI) ONLY WANT TO HELP THIS ISLAND BE EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL AND AS A GROUP WE HAVE NO POSITION SUPPORT AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE CNMI NOR A CHANGE IN THE IMMIGRATION STATUS FOR SOME OF MEMBERS. WE ARE HERE AS A GUEST WORKER AND WE DO RESPECT THE CNMI LAW. OUR GOAL IS BEAUTIFY THE ISLAND!

I would like to welcome all of you to the first annual Induction ceremony for Officers/Board of Directors of the Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI). A special welcome to you Honorable Rep. Jacinta Kaipat as you have been a Friend to the "Friends" before we were even the Friends of the Mariana Islands. Welcome to our beloved Consul General Honorable Wilfredo DL. Maximo, Welcome our special guest Ms. Katie Busenkell, Mr. Gus Kaipat, and also to Mr. Angelo Villagomez.

This is truly a historic day as our group of hardcore environmental cleanup and beautification experts. We have involved from a part of larger group who had concerns other than just the environment to select group that have dedicated theme selves strictly to the environment. Of equal importance is that we have evolved from a group representing only one nationality to a group that accepts all those who are concerned about the environment. regardless of national origin or citizenship. We believe that anyone from anywhere can come to Saipan and care about our environment. As a result of our beliefs we have welcomed anyone to our group who demonstrates a concern for the environment.

Last year. as a sub part of a larger group. Our efforts lead to that group being recognized even at a US-Wide level as a leading group to environmentally concerned individuals who dedicated an extraordinary number of hours to cleanup activities in our community. We thought of those accomplishments and wanted to develop an organization that reflected the concerns of those who had proven to be so dedicated that they brought recognition to the entire CNMI from the National level. Surely we thought that even more could be done if we developed a formal organization for those high environmental achievers.

Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) was started last year as a reflection of a need to have a group focus on the environment and particularly on the cleanup of our Island. As our team developed an expertise in how best to undertake cleanup efforts we realized that we could become an important component of the Beautify CNMI concept. As the President for the Friends of the Mariana Islands I decided to take the imitative to contact the organizers of the Beautify CNMI to see if we could link our efforts with theirs. We were pleased that just a the FMI accepts all people who are dedicated to helping cleanup our Island. That Beautify CNMI! also accepts help from all those who wish to improve the environment of our Island. While Beautify CNMI has diverse projects from under the sea cleanups to Tree Planting, which also a part of Restoration Projects of RC&D, we have boths partnered with theme in many of their efforts and also expanded upon their environmental projects with those of our own. We were proud to accomplish in record time our first funded cleanup project on Saipan just this last month and we Thank Mobil for their financial Support which made the drainage cleanup at MSGR. Martinez Street. and MSGR. Guerrero Street possible.

Though Friends of the Mariana Islands (FMI) was formed and projects have already been undertaken. Such an organization can not operate without some of its members accepting even greater burdens than others. I am now speaking about those who are being inducted today. FMI is non-profit organization and no one is compensated for the hours we all volunteer. This is also true for these Officers who volunteer even more of their time to make sure the organization is ready when the time comes for all of us to volunteer at different projects. I takes that extra volunteer time to have everything ready for our volunteers and these Officers are the ones that make it possible for our volunteers to have the support they need when they begin a project. Volunteers need to know where and when to show up, what they can do, that the tools they need will be there and even that health and safety concerns have been met such as having drinking water etc available. None of that happens automatically., it takes our officers to make that happen. Today we honor you Officers who have accepted the burden, with no privilege associated with it, of making the FMI work.